The past two and a half weeks have found me fishing every day the weather would allow. When the wind cooperates the fishing is above average. The windy days have been a struggle trying to drift fish. Wading would have yielded better results on those days. The trout are not in their true fall pattern yet, but we see positive signs after every cool front. The redfish have been in transition for several weeks now. In other words, they're spread out as opposed to the tight schools we worked all summer. Most of our fish are being taken over semi-deep shell in 6 to 8 feet of water. However, we've had a handle full of trips when we caught them up shallow. Our mainstay baits have been Plum / Chartreuse tail and solid Limetreuse Salt Water Assassins. We've also caught a fair share of trout and reds on topwaters under the right conditions. Flounder have been on the move here recently as well. Even though we're not fishing for them we've managed to put a few in the box each week. The keeper to throwback ratio for flatties has been about to one to three.

Oct. 2nd - Hugh and Haiden Hawkins along with Haiden's buddy Ryan helped jump start the Waterloo Rod Big Trout Contest. It was the first day of the contest and Haiden's first fish of the morning was a healthy 24 inch trout weighing 4.25 pounds! Later in the morning his dad edged him out with a 4.6 pounder. Ryan caught his fair share as well. They released the large specks and kept 20 specks and 2 redfish. Fun day!

Oct. 3rd – Larry, Rhonda & Curtis got on a good bite on their first drift. We visited a few other areas after they had their limits then caught and released another 15 keeper trout up to 24 inches. Curtis also caught and released a 29 inch red. Epic day!

Oct. 4th – T.C., Pat and Manuel fished in a fairly stiff south wind with me. We hooked and fought a total of 17 solid trout, but only landed 5 of them. It was one of the craziest (and most frustrating) things I’ve ever witnessed. At least the ones we had were nice trout to 24 inches. That still didn’t make me feel any better. Hopefully I can make it up to them in November.

Oct. 5th – The wind died back down so Alan, Bill and John had great results! They kept their limits of trout and a couple of reds and released another dozen or so trout to 24 inches. What a difference a day makes.

Oct. 6th – More great conditions and more great results for Bryan, Brent and Chris. They had their limits of very nice trout in the box by 10:45 AM. It was their first time to use artificials for trout and they all caught their personal best trout. They released at least another 20 trout to 24 inches before heading in with big smiles.

Oct. 7th – Cancelled because of high winds.

Oct. 8th – Sam, Rolfe and Buzz didn’t get started fishing with me until noon because of stiff morning winds. The afternoon plan worked out great as they boxed 23 trout, 2 redfish and a flounder.

Oct. 9th – It was a tough windy day for Scott and Wayne. They boxed 7 nice trout, two redfish and a flounder. We’re in an every-other-day pattern it seems. That’s not unusual for October on Galveston Bay.

Oct. 10th – Alan Jackson came solo to learn a little about fishing Galveston Bay. The conditions were perfect and so were the results! He had his limit by 8:45 then we covered a lot of different areas catching and releasing another 30 keeper trout up to 23 inches. About half of our fish were caught on topwaters including Alan’s 25 inch redfish. God, I love it when a plan comes together.

Oct. 11th – Remember what I said about the every-other-day pattern? Unfortunately, Kent, Kyle and Roy were the recipients of one of the “off” days. The wind was strong and the tides were weak. They still somehow managed a dozen good sized trout, 3 reds and 1 flounder. They also caught a lot of undersized trout and released an oversized redfish so it was worth the effort.

Oct. 12th – Haley and David made 4 drifts to box their limits of trout in near-perfect conditions. It was still early so we hit a few redfish spots on the way in. David popped one red but that was it other than a couple of throwback flounder and more trout. It was a pleasant morning and a great bite. Who could ask for more?

Oct. 13th – Fished in the Annual Dienst Distributing Fishing Tournament out of Topwater Grill hosted by Capt. Michael LaRue. We were hoping the wind would give us at least a 2 hour window, but it was not to be. Billy, Luis and Bill fished with me until 11 AM in absolutely horrible conditions to scrape up 2 trout and one redfish. At least we took 1st place for the largest redfish and 2nd place overall stringer. It was a lot of fun as always. I just wish the wind would have cooperated a little.

Oct. 14th – I had Minh Tran and his two awesome kids, Megan and Chris meet me at the ramp at 11 AM. The NE wind was just too strong to go out before then. It slicked off nicely when we got to our first spot, but that only lasted for about 45 minutes before it started cranking from the south. We came in around 5:30 with 3 trout and about 20 sand trout in the box. Chris and Megan had a good time catching sand trout and Minh took over the lead in the Waterloo Rod contest with his 25 inch (4.9 lb.) trout. I got home in plenty of time to watch the Packers whoop the Texans. Went to bed depressed after a tough day of fishing and the Texans loss. Better days ahead!

Oct. 15th – Cancelled because of SSW winds gusting to 20 mph.

Oct. 16th – The wind was a little strong early, but died down nicely for Sonny, Rick & Jess. The bite came in spurts. They put their 30 trout to 22 inches and one 17 inch flounder in the cooler by 1:30 then headed elsewhere to find a few redfish. Rick hooked two nice reds, but only landed one of them before we headed in to beat thunderstorms. It was a fun day despite the fact that Jess’ brother Charles couldn’t make the trip. Rick did a great job filling his spot. I don’t know if Charles would have caught as many fish as Rick did. It will be interesting to see if Charles gets benched on the November trip. Jess and his crew were so much fun to fish with!

Oct. 17th & 18th - Cancelled because of winds gusting to more than 30 mph.